When 32 year old Pekka Juhani Hannikainen was invited to deputize for Doctor Erik August Hagfors as lecturer in music at the Jyväskylä Teacher Training College for three months in 1887, he could not guess that his time as a substitute would extend to thirty years. Subsequent generations remember him as one of Finlands most versatile opinion leaders where music was concerned during an epoch when a battle was fought on behalf of the Finnish language and the Finnish identity was moulded.
Now, over 100 years later, Hannikaisens native city is a hub of music research and instruction enjoying international importance. Started in Jyväskylä in 2002, the Finnish Music Campus is a unique example of cooperation between colleges of music and institutions of higher education. The aim is that the Finnish Music Campus will evolve into a nationally important centre of music education, as well of research and development activity.
Were getting rid of overlaps in teaching and making the use of our premises more efficient. Already now students at Jyväskyläs Finnish Conservatoire, the University of Jyväskylä and Jyväskylä Polytechnic are able to take joint study programmes. Merging our IT and library services could allow a music information centre of national stat¬ure to take shape, envisages Hannu Ikonen, Director of the School of Cultural Studies at Jyväskylä Polytechnic. Each actor involved in the music campus possesses a particular strength: the university has scientific research, the polytechnic classical music and the Finnish Conservatoire pop and jazz music.
The music network is expanding and cooperation between cities is also becoming closer. We are starting collaboration in music education and research with the neighbouring city of Kuopio, reveals Professor Jaakko Erkkilä, who heads the Department of Music at the University of Jyväskylä.
At the end of 2006 the Academy of Finland nominated 18 Centres of Excellence for the national Centres of Excellence in Research programme covering the years 20082013. Among these at the University of Jyväskylä was the Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research led by Professor Petri Toiviainen, which is a joint project with the University of Helsinki.
In Jyväskylä all levels of music education can be found, from basic art education to vocational training. Study here is compact and logistically easy to manage, says Hannu Perälä, Rector of the Finnish Conservatoire, which constitutes part of Jyväskylä Vocational Institute. The Finnish Conservatoire arranges basic art education in music and dance and trains professional musicians.
Basic art education is an absolute prerequisite for professional studies and one element of the good life for people living in the region, Perälä ventures.
According to Perälä basic art education is constantly under pressure to change. Children and young peo¬ple nowadays have access to so many free-time activities that there remains increasingly little time for music and dance. Indeed, Perälä ponders whether youngsters might react positively to coeducation after all, children and young people egg one another on in sporting hobbies, too.
Jyväskylä Polytechnics degree programme in music produces musicians who possess strong expertise in classical music. The polytechnic has brought new thinking to Finnish music education. Introduced in 2003, the Degree Programme in Music Management is a completely English-medium degree course in international music management that is run in cooperation with Norways Hedmark University College and in Holland University of the Netherlands. Ten places on the programme attracted some 260 applicants.
International expertise in the business, entrepreneurship and legislation associated with music is sorely need¬ed, because the export prospects for Finnish music are good, Ikonen underlines. At the University of Jyväskyläs Department of Music musicology, music education and music therapy can all be studied. Those who have studied musicology as their main subject find employment in the research field, the media and music administration. Those studying music education go on to become music teachers. Studies in music therapy are organised in the form of a two-year masters programme. The foundation for masters studies in music therapy in Jyväskylä is provided by Open University studies and the Eino Roiha institute.
In addition we run a masters programme entitled Music, Mind and Technology which introduces students to current research in cognition and the reception of music, the methods and equipment of technological applications involving music, as well as empirical research in the branch. In these studies we make use of the latest technology and studio facilities. More than half the students on the masters programme are from abroad, the most distant from Canada and Mexico, Jaakko Erkkilä explains.
Cognitive music research is one of the University of Jyväskyläs rising areas of strength, while music technology constitutes an area of strength in the sphere of technology. The technology in use at the universitys Department of Music is among the best in Europe. The technology environment includes a high-quality studio as well as the only movement research test bed featuring eight infrared cameras in Finland.
With the help of the universitys technology it is also possible to study the effects of music therapy. In the course of research use is made among other things of skin galvanic measurements and EEG tests. Using EEG, brain responses that are produced when listening to music can be mapped. Improvisations generated during music therapy can be analysed with the assistance of computer technology.
One field of research is music modelling employing computer technology. According to Professor Petri Toiviainen systems are under development that will permit large collections of musical recordings to be automatically analysed and classified.
Internationalization can be seen in music education and cooperation in a multitude of ways. In May 2007 a joint chamber music conference of European colleges of music will be held in Jyväskylä.
The theme Team work: developing European professional training in chamber music, will focus attention on pedagogical questions involved in the teaching of music.
The polytechnic is a partner, too, in an EU-funded pilot project entitled Music Masters for New Audiences and Innovative Practice, which involves five European and two American universities. The aim of the programme is to create an opportunity for musicians in possession of a polytechnic or Bachelors degree to take a Masters level joint degree. In terms of content the programme seeks to provide musicians with new and innovative ways of reaching audiences. Our partner AEC, the European Association of Conservatoires, is of the opinion that music education must be restructured in this direc¬tion, states Hannu Ikonen.
In Hannu Peräläs estimation one central characteristic of a music city is a lively musical life and club activity outside students official studies.
In particular Jazz Bar, which supports young musicians, and the jazz community which has sprung up around it provide young artists with the creative environment in which to grow. Jyväskylä is Finlands second most popular city in which to study pop and jazz based on the number of applications. Only the Pop & Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki enjoys greater popularity, Perälä reveals.
Now firmly established, Jyväskylä Summer Jazz brings together jazz amateurs and professionals in the city each June. Also the interartistic Jyväskylä Arts Festival offers artists opportunities to appear and at the same time brings international influences to Jyväskylä.
The list of choirs and orchestras in the city is long: Jyväskylä has in excess of 40 choirs. Founded by P. J. Hannikainen in 1899, the male choir Sirkat, for instance, is still going strong. In recent decades a significant contribution to the promotion of choral music has been made by composer and choir leader Pekka Kostiainen.
Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä has conducted extensive tours abroad. In recent years activities have included tours of Japan, France, Spain and Poland. Since 2003 the orchestras chief conductor has been Patrick Gallois.
Thanks to digitalization, the internet and technological development music is in a powerful state of flux. Hannu Perälä believes that the job profile of those who have trained as musicians will change. New tasks may be connected with the distribution of music, for example, or expertise in digital media.
One can only guess what kinds of applications will emerge in future, for instance, for combinations of music, physical recreation and information technology. Changing requirements in terms of professional skill put pressure on education. In the future professionals in music will need many kinds of capabilities: IT, media and AV-technology skills as well as acquaintance with entrepreneurship and legislation pertaining to music, Perälä stresses.
Also changes in distribution channels will affect points of emphasis in education and research. Gradually physical instruments of recording and distribution will disappear and be replaced by music downloaded as files from the net. This will change the whole structure of the music business, ventures Petri Toiviainen.
The changes will also affect training in traditional classical music. New technology and new ways of thinking will gradually become part of the way classical music is taught, Hannu Ikonen suggests.
------ Photo 1 (above): Pekka Juhani Hannikainen (Photograph: Museum of Central Finland)
Photo 2 (below):Researcher Geoff Luck demonstrates Finlands only movement research test bed equipped with eight infrared cameras. The cameras record movements by means of reflectors attached to the subject; information can be analysed in a computer program as a three-dimensional model.
Photo 3 (below): At the beginning of 2006 Annika Eklund took part in the Finnish heats for the Eurovision Song Contest. Her entry, Shanghai lights, had a powerful Bond-inspired beat. Annika graduated from Jyväskylä Polytechnic as a music educator in 2005.
Photo 4 (below): Basic art education is one element of the good life for people living in the Jyväskylä Region, suggests the Finnish Conservatoires rector, Hannu Perälä. Photo: JORMA RÄSÄNEN
Photo 5 (below): In Jyväskylä Jazz Bar ranks high on the list of young rock and jazz musicians as a place to appear. Heini Ikonen (vocals) and Tatu Santaniemi (bass).
By Timo Sillanpää Photos by Petteri Kivimäki unless otherwise stated